Articles
Essays, reviews, and commentary on literature, history, politics, and ideas.
LITERATURE IS ALWAYS NOW
The idea of retreat or retrenchment might surprise those who see nothing but good in the present, with its ceaselessly productive creative arts, but Derek Mahon wants nothing to do with this cheerful complacency.
Lying for France
Reluctance to admit the innocence of the unjustly condemned Captain Dreyfus arose not just from anti-Semitism but against a background of bitter century-old divisions.
Island Sickness
Long divided, Argentines finally found national unity under the leadership of the continent’s most murderous regime and its campaign to retake the Malvinas.
AN IMPERIAL MEDIEVALIST
A collection of essays pays timely tribute to one of the greatest scholars that Ireland has ever produced.
The Inside Man
An unorthodox, non-doctrinaire leftist, Gore Vidal tended to make would-be political allies uncomfortable and was not an easy individual with whom to make common cause.
NAUGHTY BUT NICE
Jane Austen inherited a tradition in which the novel was expected to teach good behaviour. But that was not what interested her. Her fictions are less moral examples than celebrations of wit and intelligence.
ADDLED BY BOOKS
Enrique Vila-Matas plays some complex games with literature and characters yet any threat of heaviness is redeemed by his assured comic touch and fine sense of the ridiculous.
SYRIA’S UPRISING
Concord between various ethnic groups in Syria appeared evident until acts of obscene violence began to be carried out by both the regime and anti-regime forces. But few people in the future will want to live alongside those they suspect…
INSURRECTIONISTS AND SKIRMISHERS
When you lose in politics there is a tendency for others ‑ particularly the young ‑ to question, if not denounce, your tactics. Notwithstanding the impressive list of achievements and concessions won by O’Connell over thirty-odd years, his ending was…
REPLY TO JOHN BORGONOVO
The author responds to a review of his book on the Black and Tans.
THE MAGIC’S GONE
JK Rowling’s new adult novel has more characters than are good for it. It’s also a little difficult to care too much about them.
REPLY TO JOHN REGAN
Response to John Regan’s review of Eve Morrison’s “Kilmichael revisited: Tom Barry and the ‘false surrender”’ in D Fitzpatrick, Terror in Ireland: 1916-1923.